Would you die for your passion?Most wouldn’t but for 58-year-old Swee Chiow, Singapore’s first professional adventurer, it’s a question he must face every day.And it all began when he caught a glimpse of Mount Everest from a plane.He was working in IT (Singapore Airlines) then, but he decided from that one glimpse that he wanted to climb Mount Everest - a dream that took him a mere 10 years to achieve!The journey was hard.He knew nothing. So he read many books & even went on a 10-day mountaineering course at Mt Cook that he flunked because he wasn’t fit enough!In 1998, he joined Singapore’s first Mount Everest expedition. It was a disaster at first because:❌ Their tent collapsed during a freak storm❌ Their first attempt at the South Pole failed as they didn’t have enough rope - the Singapore media hounded them & issued headlines declaring that the expedition had failedBut they didn’t give up.Their second attempt was a success!But an exhausting one. In the midst of the media glory, Swee Chiow knew he had to take advantage of it so he immediately launched Singapore&#39;s first Antarctic expedition.Since then, he has:<ul><li>Climbed Everest x3 and K2</li><li>8,000km cycle from SG → Beijing (China) = 2003</li><li>Swam 40 km across Malacca Straits</li><li>Kayaked 3,000km across Philippines</li><li>Broke his first Guinness World Records for the longest scuba submergence (220 hours)</li><li>Rollerbladed 6,000km from Hanoi SG in 94 days (and broke the Guinness World Records in 2008)</li></ul>Highlights:<ul><li>3:34 Why Why Why?!</li><li>4:12 Fear of heights</li><li>5:00 Computer science in Kansas</li><li>6:11 Saw Mount Everest from a plane</li><li>6:51 Not giving up after 10 years</li><li>7:24 The mountain is magical & spiritual?!</li><li>9:06 Lessons learned</li><li>10:27 Altitude sickness / AMS</li><li>12:04 Pulling Singapore’s first Everest expedition together</li><li>13:25 You can’t fail!</li><li>14:19 What should people know about Everest?</li><li>16:45 Quitting his day job</li><li>17:45 Antarctica</li><li>19:38 Commercialising his adventure business</li><li>20:32 Swee Chiow’s value proposition?</li><li>22:02 How he builds trust with his clients</li><li>24:11 Risks & death</li><li>25:11 Any trick to staying calm?</li><li>25:24 Drifting to Taiwan & near certain death</li><li>27:37 Never let your ego take over</li><li>29:28 Dealing with the media</li><li>30:55 Never doing K2 again</li><li>32:19 The ghosts at Tibet’s Xishapengma</li><li>36:12 Adventurers hogging the limelight</li><li>37:04 Collaborating with AirAsia X</li><li>40:16 How Swee Chiow decides on his adventures</li><li>41:43 Advice for those in their 30s</li><li>45:28 What’s next?</li><li>46:26 The second act of his career?</li><li>47:36 Leadership principles to be an effective guide for his team</li><li>49:15 What drives you to push yourself to the extreme each time?</li><li>50:23 Do you feel like you’ve found your why?</li><li>51:06 What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind?</li><li>51:27 What are the most important qualities of a successful person?</li></ul>Special thanks to <a href="https://www.hepmil.com/limpehstudios" rel="nofollow">Limpeh Studios</a> (Hepmil Media) for the studio!🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?:<a href="https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy" rel="nofollow"> https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy</a> 📍Show notes:<a href="https://www.sothisismywhy.com/142" rel="nofollow"> </a><a href="https://www.sothisismywhy.com/143" rel="nofollow">https://www.sothisismywhy.com/143</a>  💌 STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling &#43; building your personal brand (&#43;snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes):<a href="https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062" rel="nofollow"> https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062</a>✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY:<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442" rel="nofollow"> https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442</a>

Podurama

Home

Trending

Personal

Your Podcasts

New Episodes

My Files

Favourite Episodes

Tags (Folders)

Recently Played

Bookmarks

Followed Playlists

Ep 143: Becoming Singapore’s 1st Professional Adventurer - You Never too Old to Take Risks! | Khoo Swee Chiow

So This Is My Why

AI Chapters

AI Insights

Reviews